Comprehensive Financial Planning Bundle: The Fundamentals and The Case Approach

John E. Grable, Ph.D., CFP®

Professor John Grable teaches and conducts research in the Certified Financial Plannerä Board of Standards Inc. undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Georgia where he holds an Athletic Association Endowed Professorship. Prior to entering the academic profession, he worked as a pension/benefits administrator and later as a Registered Investment Adviser in an asset management firm. Dr. Grable has served the financial planning profession as the founding editor of the Journal of Personal Finance and co-founding editor of the Journal of Financial Therapy and Financial Planning Review. He is best known for his work in the areas of financial literacy and education, financial risk-tolerance assessment, behavioral financial planning, and evidence-based financial planning. He has been the recipient of numerous research and publication awards and grants and is active in promoting the link between research and financial planning practice where he has published over 150 refereed papers, co-authored several textbooks, co-authored a financial planning communication book, and co-edited a financial planning and counseling scales book and a graduate-level personal finance book. Since earning his Ph.D., Dr. Grable has served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC), as Treasurer and President for the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI), as Treasurer and board member for the Financial Therapy Association, and as an Academy of Financial Services board member. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Cato Award for Distinguished Journalism in the Field of Financial Services, the IARFC Founders Award, the Dawley-Scholer Award for Faculty Excellence in Student Development, and the ACCI Mid-Career Award.

ASPIRE Clinic, University of Georgia

Megan Ford has served as the Clinic Coordinator of the University of Georgia’s ASPIRE Clinic since 2011. The ASPIRE Clinic, a unit of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS), is a first-of-its-kind interprofessional training clinic that joins together the collaborative service areas of therapy, financial planning, nutrition, and law. Megan leads an unparalleled experiential opportunity at the ASPIRE Clinic for both graduate and undergraduate students in FACS through direct service learning, helping both the Athens community as well as the UGA community access low- or no-cost services. For her work and leadership, Megan was recently named one of FACS’s 100 Centennial Honorees to acknowledge her commitment to the ideals of the college and for being instrumental in serving students. In addition to her full-time work at ASPIRE, Megan is currently pursuing a doctorate in Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia. Before coming to the UGA, she earned a Master’s degree in Family Studies and Human Services with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from Kansas State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of South Dakota. With a unique blend of education and practice experience in both therapy and financial planning, Megan has become a leader in the emerging field of financial therapy. Megan served as president of the Financial Therapy Association (FTA) from 2016-2018 and is the former copy editor for The Journal of Financial Therapy. Remaining active with the Association, she also serves as Chair of the FTA Regulatory Committee and has been integral in the development of the FTA’s financial therapy certification program. She is the author of the blog, Finding Harmoney, which explores the dynamics of money and relationships, and her thoughts have been featured nationally and internationally in the New York Times, Consumer Reports, CNN Money, Time Money, BBC, Financial Advisors Magazine, and more.

The University of Georgia

Michelle Kruger is a Ph.D. candidate with a concentration in Financial Planning at The University of Georgia (UGA). She graduated magna cum laude with a B.B.A. in Finance from the Terry College of Business at UGA in 2015. Michelle teaches classes in computer application in financial planning, as well as advanced financial planning seminar courses. Her research interests include financial planning interventions, risk tolerance assessment, and behaviors associated with building wealth. In addition to her graduate studies, Michelle works as a research assistant at the Financial Planning Performance Lab, the nation’s only applied clinical facility designed to obtain evidence about the effectiveness of the financial planning process. She has worked as a financial planning analyst at Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group, a fee-only, comprehensive financial planning firm located in Athens, Georgia. She also has served as a financial counselor at the Aspire Clinic, an interdisciplinary teaching and research institution, applying marriage and family therapy theories and techniques to her work with financial clients.

Assistant Professor at Kansas State University

Ron Sages is an Assistant Professor of Personal Financial Planning for Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where he teaches in the CFP® Board Registered Master’s and Doctoral Programs. Courses he currently teaches for KSU include Investments, Estate Planning, Financial Ethics, Applied Behavioral Finance, Advanced Retirement Planning, Advanced Estate Planning, Research Methods I, and the Case Studies/Financial Plan Development Course. He was a 2016 recipient of the GPIDEA Faculty Excellence Award for his instruction in the Case Studies/Program Development Course. In addition to his responsibilities at K-State, Dr. Sages is a Senior Investment Officer and Director of Personal Financial Planning for Eagle Ridge Investment Management, LLC, a wealth management firm, based in Stamford, Connecticut. A former wealth management entrepreneur for 25 years, including an additional 20 years of Money Center Bank experience, Ron earned his doctorate in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University in 2012 and his MBA in Finance and Taxation from the University of Connecticut in 1979. His research interests are in behavioral finance, risk management and financial literacy. As a financial planning practitioner and researcher, Ron aspires to bring applied research to financial planning practitioners in an effort to provide practical solutions to client-focused challenges. Ron is a member of the Stamford (CT) CFA Society, Estate Planning Council of Lower Fairfield County (CT), the National Association of Estate Planning Councils, American Council on Consumer Interests, Financial Planning Association, and the Financial Therapy Association.